معرفی
Sydney Levine is a cognitive scientist working at the intersection of human moral judgment and AI safety. Currently a Visiting Research Scientist at Google Deepmind, she will join New York University as an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department in Spring 2026. Her research uses cognitive science methods to engineer AI systems that align with pluralistic human moral values while remaining interpretable and steerable.
Dr. Levine's academic journey includes:
- PhD in Psychology from Rutgers University (2016), supervised by Alan Leslie
- Postdoctoral work at Harvard Psychology Department (supervised by Fiery Cushman) and MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department (supervised by Joshua Tenenbaum)
- Research Scientist position at the Allen Institute for AI (2022-present)
- Research Affiliate status with both Harvard and MIT
Her research focuses on understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying human moral judgment and applying these insights to AI safety. She develops computational models of moral cognition, particularly examining how people make judgments about rule-breaking, universalization, and moral compromise. Her work bridges cognitive science, moral philosophy, and artificial intelligence, seeking to create frameworks for value-aligned AI systems that can navigate pluralistic human values.
Dr. Levine's publication record demonstrates a strong trajectory in both cognitive science and AI ethics, with articles appearing in top journals like Nature: Machine Intelligence, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Cognition, and PNAS. Her research shows increasing integration of AI and moral psychology, with recent work focusing on language model alignment with human moral values across cultural contexts.
Her scientific achievements include:
- Best Paper Award at NeurIPS Workshop for 'Language Model Alignment in Multilingual Trolley Problems' (2024)
- Conference-wide Disciplinary Diversity and Integration Award at Cognitive Science Society (2022)
- Multiple conference-wide poster awards at Society for Philosophy and Psychology
Dr. Levine has secured significant research funding, including a $1.5M Templeton World Charity Foundation grant and a $690K NSF grant, demonstrating strong support for her interdisciplinary research program. She has advised numerous students at various levels and maintains active collaborations with leading researchers in cognitive science and AI.
Her upcoming lab at NYU will continue this important work at the intersection of cognitive science and AI safety, with a focus on creating interpretable and steerable AI systems that align with pluralistic human moral values.
